TrailBlazers Impact

Andrea Campbell survived cancer not once, but twice. While such an experience could drive many to despair by fighting through the ordeal twice, she ultimately came to a place of catharsis, healing, and purpose.

The ordeal presented Campbell with stark choices about what to do. She felt she had been playing things too small, so it was time to ditch the corporate job and embark on a journey to her true passion as a professional speak...

In this interview, Virginia W. Harris, National President, National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Inc., with 60 chapters and thousands of members nationwide, shares reflections of her start as a servant-leader that, more likely than not, was planted as a seed when she found herself as one of only three Black girls integrating an otherwise all White high school in south Georgia during the early 1960s. Her high school years were foll...

Emily Josenhans wants to help people ditch the artificial sweeteners. She started Domaine Santa Grape Nectar to give a healthier and more holistic alternative that adds a natural sweetener to food and beverages.

Building a healthy product is informed by her work as a nutritionist, where she helped clients make healthier diet choices prior to launching her business. Hear Josenhans describe the entrepreneurship journey, partnering wi...

Antonio McGinnis grew up in a difficult housing project where he recalls constantly seeing drugs and violence. Basketball was his escape. It was the path to a college education and a life far away from an upbringing where he experienced abuse from a caregiver. After playing for Texas A&M and professionally overseas, he returned home one summer and broke his ankle — ending his basketball career.

To McGinnis it was a sign. He now...

Jamie Amelio’s heart was moved by a child in Cambodia who begged her for a dollar. She was bothered by why a child would need to be out asking for money, and the encounter stayed with her. This drove her to launch Caring for Cambodia and invest heavily in building a charity that works to give children education and a future.
The experience models her philosophy of staying bothered. If something bothers you, she says, don’t just let...

Jatrice Martel Gaiter shares the influences and the value of a pay-it-forward career started in her early 20s and serving her well into her 60s. With a childhood defined by parents who stressed the importance of education as the gateway to a life full of opportunity, risks and rewards; and finding purpose in the pain of others, Jatrice provides a heart-moving backdrop to her stellar career path. From the benefit born of the tenacit...

Tyra Jarvis has had to retool her life many times. She’s worn an array of hats: consultant, project manager, blue collar roles, and ultimately an entrepreneur.

Now through her company Kefi Coaching LLC, she advises business leaders in connecting passion, dreams, and the power of their mind to create a meaningful path. Transitions can be frightening, but they can launch powerful change.

Her toughest transition was the loss of her hu...

Beth Cole’s history of activism and social change dates back to the presidential campaigns of Bobby Kennedy and George McGovern. This demonstrated commitment caught the attention of McGovern’s campaign coordinator, Frank Mankiewicz, such that when he assumed the position of president, NPR, the federally financed radio network of news, public affairs and cultural programming for much of America, he brought Beth on with him. Beth eve...

Ana Bermudez would often find fashion inspiration on TV from her favorite shows. Yet finding the items in real life was a chore. It’s why she launched TAGit, a visual search engine that helps users find and buy items that pop up on TV shows.

As a female tech CEO, she knows the challenges that women leaders and investors face, which is why it’s critical for women to support one another through both relationships and investment capit...

Dawn Simmons shares her journey as a former math teacher, flight attendant, along with the lessons-learned as a Black woman working on Wall Street and joining with other women to crack that Glass Ceiling. She shares her advice on the "little things" that can help a woman with aspirations to join and Succeed in a Wall Street firm and the early start of her journey to add her voice with others to reform America's criminal...

Kara Mac grew tired of hauling around extra shoes. Like many working professionals, she would start her commute in one pair, change to another at work, and then swap shoes for an evening event.

For two years she sketched and prototyped dozens of shoe concepts. She landed on a design for boots with swappable heel covers that she terms “candy” accessories. After 25 years in the fashion world, she quit her full-time job once she found...

Children’s natural language is play. That’s why therapist Janie Stubblefield used a technique in her practice called play therapy, which helps her foster deep connections with kids who need healing from trauma, bullying, anxiety, and other mental health challenges.

She takes an outside-the-box approach to making therapy more accessible with a mobile practice that goes where her clients are instead of making them come into an office...

Building dynamic teams and helping individuals reach their maximum potential is a life calling for Laura Piening. Her expertise and vision in transforming organizations was honed through a 30-year career in the business and nonprofit world, where she broke through several barriers, including becoming one of the first women to work in international banking on Wall Street.

She served as one of the few female pages in the New York Sen...

Today’s college students are entering an economy that demands an entrepreneurial mindset. Briana Weisinger, the startup advocate for the University of California, San Diego, wants students to be prepared for a future where independent work is the norm.

University research indicates more than half of students now in college will be independently employed in the next 15 years. Along with preparing students for this future, she helps ...

Kimble Bosworth approaches life with a sense of fun-loving curiosity. When she was 15, she had a near death experience after almost succumbing to toxic shock syndrome. She remembers being at the doorway of what she believed was heaven, tempted to enter but instead willing herself back to life after hearing her mother’s voice in the hospital room.

Since that experience, there’s nothing to fear. Whether it’s her marketing business or...

Betsy Muller is a self-described science person, with a degree in chemistry and an MBA. It makes her an unlikely advocate for the Emotional Freedom Technique, a form of alternative therapy. Yet as a master trainer, she’s a passionate advocate about using it to help others recover from traumatic experiences and achieve wellbeing.

Muller credits the technique with helping her husband in his recovery from a traumatic brain injury and ...

In this fast-paced interview, Retired Lieutenant Colonel Valarie R. Austin shares her life lessons on achieving four college degrees and serving in a combat zone while living in a Middle Eastern country with different cultural expectations for "women."

In her interview, Valarie discusses her career as a military officer as well as life-after her military service, in particular, pursuing her passion for writing and publishin...

Valentina Vitols has had a varied career, moving between politics, photography, app development, and the world of startups. Now an angel investor in Seattle, she mentors women founders to equip them for the journey of entrepreneurship.

In helping others, she draws on the many ups and downs she has experienced. Her first company failed, though from the experience she learned that it’s critical to sometimes seek outside help to solve...

Gina Goree Hitchens wants women to create a life of their calling. A major component is a firm financial foundation, and it’s what she helps clients develop through her practice GHG Financial Consulting.

Hitchens empowers women with financial skills and knowledge to prepare for the uncertainties of life. Hitchens believes in getting to know her clients and helping them develop a vision for the future, such as retirement and how to ...